warrior

Latest

  • Burning Crusade Spells & Talents Updated

    by 
    Elizabeth Harper
    Elizabeth Harper
    10.04.2006

    No, no -- still no hunter abilities. The main body of these changes seems to be extensive revisions to the priest abilities, making them a lot more interesting (and actually tempting me to spec higher than 31 points in any tree -- crazy!). However, there are also some tweaks for paladins, warlocks, and warriors. Check them out on the forums, or read on for the details.

  • Tactical Mastery Isn't Going Anywhere

    by 
    Mike Schramm
    Mike Schramm
    08.31.2006

    Tactical Mastery: every Warrior both loves and hates it. Loves it, because it makes stance dancing much easier (the talent lets you keep rage around while you switch between stances to use different abilities). Hates it, because most warriors consider it so necessary that even if they don't spec Arms, they have to use at least 10 points to level it all the way up. Recently, this little love/hate relationship has gained fire, because in the new Burning Crusade talents, Blizzard has moved Tactical Mastery over to the first tier of the protection tree. Warriors, as they are wont to do, smell blood in the water, and lots of them are fighting with Tseric to try and get Blizz to make it trainable instead, and remove it from the tree completely.Now if my Shaman prediction hasn't convinced you of my greatness, it might interest you to know that I've leveled up not one but two warriors (and am working on a third). So I know what I'm talking about when I say: Blizzard will never take Tactical Mastery out of the talent tree. As Tseric says, learning how to stance dance and choose abilities by stance is one of the elemental parts of the class. Besides, Tactical Mastery isn't even completely necessary anyway-- one warrior in my guild never bothered to learn it, and instead counts on timed Bloodrages and DPS to make up the lost rage. So if you're waiting to TM to disappear from the tree, don't hold your breath.Tseric has also posted an interesting "Design Philosophy for Warriors." Warriors, it seems, are like the workhorses of Azeroth-- every race can be one, and there are plenty to go around, so the class has to be as customizable and yet as viable as possible. The devs working on the Warrior class, Tseric says, aren't interested in removing tough choices-- they're interested in getting players to make them. Removing TM would do exactly the opposite. But at the same time, making those choices pays off-- as I learned yet again last night: dual wielding and duoing with a priest, my little gnome warrior was unstoppable.

  • Zfang portable gaming keyboard reviewed

    by 
    Stan Horaczek
    Stan Horaczek
    06.09.2006

    If you're looking to give your fingers a break but don't want to replace your regular keyboard with one of Ideazon's fairly large and generally graphics-laden Zboards, you might be interested in adding their compact new Zfang to your repertoire. Extremetech's review is generally positive, complimenting its ergonomic design and extensive customizability, citing only minor negatives like plastic construction and the $35 price tag. Other features, like buttons on each side to accommodate lefties, multimedia controls, and 11 weapon-specific keys, make the Zfang seem like just the thing to help us in our transition from FPS-player to real-life killing machines.